THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS, one of the best-known and most endearingly bad of the bargain basement sci-fi wave of the 50s, was a box-office success. Even though its reap was so puny (in our primitive Earthling math) it escaped listing anywhere—Cogerson, for example, doesn’t include on the roundup for 1957 to stand head-over-brain with lofty brethren—the 70 minutes of sublime doofitude ranked a win thanks to only costing $58,000 to create. Of such humble origins are legends born. * 

Someone’s back yard, a few sparsely furnished indoor sets and the familiar cave locale in Hollywood’s handy Bronson Canyon take us into the wackadoodle story of scientist ‘Steve March’ (John Agar: commence laughing), his pawed-over girlfriend ‘Sally’ (Joyce Meadows) and two beings from another planet (guess) who appear as giant floating brains (with eyes). The nice brain, ‘Vol’ eventually inhabits Sally’s dog, but evil brain ‘Gor’ (what else would it be with that name) takes possession of Steve with the lofty ambition of Conquering The World.

“After I’m gone, your Earth will be free to live out its miserable span of existence, as one of my satellites, and that’s how it’s going to be“…

That stomach six-pack you pine for can get halfway there from the howls this provides thru the loonytunes script, desperate “special” effects and Agar’s acting: the go-to-guy for over a dozen doofy monster flicks, John is at his most Agarish here: great fun when he’s raving and chortling with Gor’s maniacal plans (apparently scheme #1—control the universe—since, to our everlasting gratitude, ‘Plan 9’ was occupied elsewhere), including being saddled with “gone insane” eyes (painful contact lenses Agar endured, anything for Art). Speaking of peepers, the likable Miss Meadows, 22, was gifted with alluring eyes, and a sense of humor that enabled her to get through this with a straight face and go on to 200 credits and lifelong fan letters from admirers. She can’t do a lot with a script that would defeat Meryl Streep. **

STEVE: “Why me?  GOR: “Because you are a recognized nuclear scientist. Because you have operated places on Earth I want to go. I chose your body very carefully. Even before I knew about Sally, a very exciting female.”  STEVE: “Leave Sally out of this.” GOR: “Why? She appeals to me. There are some aspects of the life of an Earth savage that are exciting and reward; things that are missed by the brains on my planet Arous.”

Russ Buffam wrote the script. Capable director Nathan Juran (The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, First Men In The Moon) was so unhappy with the resulting picture he had his last name on the credits changed to Hertz. Other actors caught in the brain freeze include Thomas Browne Henry. who older earthlings will recognize from more than 200 movie and TV roles, usually an authority type (officer, doctor, scientist) and future TV star Robert Fuller (Laramie, Wagon Train, Emergency), 24, his first credited part and the first victim of Gor.

* All Hail ’57—Plan 9 From Outer Space, The Amazing Colossal Man (also Juran/Hertz), The Monolith Monsters, The Astounding She-Monster, The Deadly Mantis (Juran, he took credit that time), Attack Of The Crab Monsters, Not Of This Earth, I Was A Teenage Frankenstein, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, The Living Idol.  Okay, enough with the duck & cover: we also got The Incredible Shrinking Man, Night Of The Demon, 20 Million Miles To Earth (Duran, taking credit), The Invisible Boy and Quatermass 2.

** “Why“, Gor scoffs when mere earthling Steve asks a question. “Why, indeed”, you, earthling reader, ponder, does everyone beat up on Agar and apologize for director Juran yet leave out writer Ray Buffam? Though his brain made ‘Arous’ a camp classic, The Buffmeister is ignored for also providing such Sally’s sallies as Teen-Age Crime Wave (“Out Of The Sidewalk Jungle…”), Teenage Monster (“Wild! Wanton! Weird!”) and Girls In The Night (“The Shock Story Of The Big City’s Delinquent Daughters!”). Back on Earth, Ray was married to Sarah Ahn, sister of the great character actor (and restaurateur) Philip Ahn, so maybe he was cool after all.

Inspiration (or the smell of green) may have come from 1953’s Donovan’s Brain (no, not Donovan’s Reef, erring earthling), remade in ’62 as The Brain, first conceived back in 1944 as The Lady And The Monster, all (scorecard?) adopted from Curt Siodmak 1942 story “Donovan’s Brain”. The ’53 effort is well-reviewed and features three good actors (Lew Ayres, Gene Evans and Steve Brodie), as well as Nancy Davis, who would later marry (and inhabit) one of the foreleast brains that was ever to be given power to incinerate our puny blue orb. Research! Sufficient to say that Arous is the kind of movie where a man has lunch with his daughter, outside in daytime, in the desert. and wears a tie.